


Gingerbread Ship

by androgynousclintbarton



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: M/M, Minor Bucky Barnes/Natasha Romanov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-21
Updated: 2016-12-21
Packaged: 2018-09-02 15:09:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8672176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/androgynousclintbarton/pseuds/androgynousclintbarton
Summary: Phil brings home a giant gingerbreak project for the holidays. Hot chocolate, theft of decorations and 'Ship wars' ensure with the help of Bucky and Natasha.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [vix_spes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vix_spes/gifts).



Shoving the door to his apartment open, Clint dropped his duffle bag by the door and stretched his arms out over his head with a groan.

“Phil!” He called out to his boyfriend, frowning when there was no response. “Phil, Hon, I’m home.”

From his spot, Clint could hear Phil rummaging around in the kitchen. Since there was no response to his call, he assumed that Phil was busying himself with work or something that he had deemed important enough to ignore his boyfriend for.

“Guess I’ll just have to find out what’s so interesting,” declared Clint, leaning down to undo his combat boots and slipping them off. Placing them on the shoe rack beside the door, he straightened and made his way towards the kitchen. Peeling off his jacket along the way, he tried to decipher what Phil was doing based on all of the noise the other man was making. They didn’t have anything planned (he would know, Phil made sure to put all their plans in a shared calendar that would send him alerts the day of so he wouldn’t forget.) and he was fairly sure that Phil would have let him know if they were having guests over that he needed to prep for.

Stepping into the kitchen, Clint tilted his head to the side and examined the table in the middle of the room. A table that Phil was currently standing proudly beside while he pointed towards a ridiculously huge box. “Is that…” Clint narrowed his eyes, more of a visual cue that he was beyond confused than anything given he had perfect vision and could very easily tell that, yes, in fact, the box was what he thought it was. “You didn’t…”

“I found it at the grocery store while i was getting things for the week,” proclaimed Phil, a proud smile plastered across his face. “Do you like it?”

Taking a few steps into the kitchen, Clint threw his jacket over the back of the nearest chair and propped his hands against the edge of the table as he examined the contents list of the box. “You want us to make a gingerbread house that’s shaped like...the U.S.S. Enterprise?” He glanced over at Phil, unable to stop himself from smiling when the older man nodded his head in excitement. “Is that even possible? The thing’s not going to just...fall apart?”

“I guess we’ll just have to find out.” Phil’s smile only seemed to grow at the thought of actually putting the monstrosity of a project together. “It could take a few hours...we might have to stay up a little late.”

Thinking about it for a moment, Clint let out a soft breath and stood up in his spot. “I’m going to need all of the hot chocolate that we have and I may end up eating half of the decorations that you’ve already put out.” He pointed towards the cupboard where Phil had multiple bowls of candy neatly organized. Boxed gingerbread houses never had enough candy to make the thing look properly awsome, so Phil always made sure to buy extra and organize it for easy access while they were building. “You’re also going to have to take a picture and send it to Nick, because I’m sure he would be very insulted if you didn’t let him see the awesomeness we create before we devour it.”

“I bought extra candy so that we don’t have a repeat of last year,” assured Phil with a pointed look. Clint winced at the reminder and his stomach did a preemptive flip at the mere thought of eating that much candy again. “And I plan on taking a picture for Nick and saving one of the 3 cookies that are included and some candy so that he can make his own.”

Nodding his head Clint glanced back over at the contents list on the box and smirked “i think he’d like the uniform shirt cookie. He can design it like the Deep space Nine uniforms.”

“You know him far too well,” chuckled Phil. Making his way over to Clint’s side he reached up and placed a hand against the archer’s cheek. “So, hot chocolate, candy and a full night of building this monstrosity?”

“I can’t think of a better way to spend my night,” declared Clint, leaning in to press a tender kiss against Phil’s lips. It was going to be a long night, but Clint had a feeling that it was going to be more than worth it when they finished building the U.S.S. Enterprise in the middle of their kitchen table.

* * *

 

Clint didn’t know when, exactly, Natasha had shown up, dragging Bucky along with her, but a few hours into the building of the great Gingerbread U.S.S. Enterprise, he found himself standing beside Natasha arguing about what candies they should use for the decal on top of the saucer.

“Is this normal for them?” asked Bucky, before popping yet another M&M into his mouth and handing four over to Phil so that he could add them to the propulsion units in the back (at least, that’s what Phil said they were. Bucky was sort of lost on the whole thing and more focused on eating as much candy as possible).

“They each have different, often very conflicting, styles,” confirmed Phil, his eyes glued to the work in front of him as he spoke. “Give it about two minutes and they’ll both finally decide that Natasha is right and Clint should just shut up and do what she says.”

“See,” stated Natasha as she waved her hand towards Phil. “Even he agreed with me.”

“Phil stop agreeing with her,” whined Clint. Phil didn’t need to look up from his work to know that Clint was giving him the most pathetic look that he could muster up at that exact moment. “You’re supposed to be on my side.”

Shaking his head, Phil chuckled fondly and reached back for another four M&M’s from Bucky. “I’m not taking sides, I’m just stating a fact. It’s how all of your arguments end when it comes to how to approach a situation. The only time you two agree on the same method for anything is if the situation is absolutely hopeless and only your most reckless plan has any chance at success.”

“Reckless?” Clint threw his hands over his chest in a show of mock protest, grunting when the candy that he had in his hand scattered across the floor. Natasha punched him in the shoulder in response. “Ok, maybe my plans are a little reckless.”

Rolling her eyes, Natasha walked over to the counter and picked up the crushed candy cane and jelly dots bowls and returned to her work station. “It shouldn’t be that hard to do,” she explained, shoving the icing sugar into Clint’s hand. “You put icing sugar on, I’ll put crushed candy canes, and green and red jelly dots on top.”

“Yes Ma’am.” Clint threw her a Vulcan salute, laughing when she rolled her eyes at him yet again, and started applying the icing sugar on the top of the saucer.

Finishing with the propulsion units, Phil took a step back to admire his work and reached out to smack Bucky’s hand when he tried to steal an M&M from it (His bowl had some how managed to empty itself while he was guarding it). “We need to finish and take a picture first.”

“Isn’t the point to eat the whole thing?” Bucky asked, leaning back in his chair with an amused huff, glancing over at Natasha and Clint as they worked on the finishing touches. “I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to eat it.”

“Phil has a system,” explained Clint. He was probably the best person to explain said system, not because he agreed with it, but because he had learned the hard way that his hand could get very sore if he ignored Phil’s system and tried to steal candy early. “First you unpack, examine everything you have, make a plan, build, decorate, take a picture, and then you can eat it.”

“That sounds like a lot of waiting.” Bucky grunted when he got a green jelly dot in the nose from Natasha. “When you said we were coming over, I kind of expected it to be a bit more...fun.”

“Oh, you want fun?” She smirked devilishly. Phil groaned in dread at the thought of what Natasha had managed to concoct in her mind to entertain her boyfriend. “Hey Clint…”

“Ya?” ask the Archer as he continued to put red and green Jelly dots on the top of the saucer, doing his best not to engage Natasha. Ultimately it was hopeless, Phil knew that much. If anyone could get under Clint’s skin and get him to be ‘entertaining’, it was Natasha.

“Don’t you think Dr. McCoy and Captain Kirk are the cutest couple ever? I’m kind of surprised that the show never made them canon.” Phil groaned when Clint’s hand froze mid way to the bowl of jelly dots, his face contorting into a look of utter horror as he glanced over at Natasha.

“McCoy and Kirk?” he practically screeched. “Natasha are you serious? If McCoy belongs with anyone, it’s Mr. Spock.”

“Right, because that would end well.” Phil smacked a hand over his mouth almost as soon as the words had left his mouth. He wasn’t supposed to be encouraging Natasha’s behaviour. He was supposed to be a reasonable and intelligent man who didn’t get into things such as ‘shipping wars’, but Clint couldn’t be more wrong.

“I’m sorry, did you say something?” Natasha emphasised her question by poking Phil in the side, a squeak of protest escaping his throat as he dropped his hands order to protect himself from the assault of her finger poking him until he died of laughter.

“McCoy and Spock are amazing together.” Clint straightened out his back and glared over at Phil. “The way they argue and poke at each other…”

“Yeah, and if they were given the chance they would argue until McCoy either went red in the face with anger and passed out, or murdered Spock.” Clint gasped at the sound of that, taking a step back and throwing a hand over his heart as if Phil had insulted his vary being. “Dr. McCoy goes best with Captain Kirk. They’re long time friends, they care about each other a lot, and they balance each other out quite well, like us.”

“Us?” Clint made a face somewhere between horror and confusion. “No, we’re like McCoy and Spock. You’re all prim, proper and logical and I’m…”

“Anti social?” Natasha supplied.

“Emotional and out of control?” suggested Phil.

“A dramaqueen?” All three of them turned to Bucky, who was in the middle of popping the green Jelly dot that Natasha had thrown at him earlier into his mouth “ What? I thought we were adding insults?”

Throwing his hands up into the air Clint groaned “Yes, all of those things. God...i hate you all.” he threw himself back into the nearest chair with a huff, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring over at Phil. “My point is, we’re not Captain Kirk and Doctor McCoy. That’s more like Bucky and Natasha.”

“Did you just call me Reckless?” Natasha narrowed her eyes at the archer, debating how best to murder him with the supplies that she currently had available to her (Phil had a firm no weapons rule in his house, so all of her knives were in a drawer in the living room for easy access in case some idiot decided to attack).

“No,” corrected Clint, “you’re smart and willing to bend or break the rules in order to do the right thing. You’re also a great leader and you’re best friends with an anti social, emotional mess of a human being.”

She debated Clint’s answer for a moment before nodding her head. That was an acceptable answer, so he wasn’t going to have to face dying because she shoved all of the available jelly drops down his throat.

“So what you’re saying is…” they all looked over at Bucky, watching as he tried to process what Clint had said, “Kirk/McCoy and McCoy/Spock are both good couples, you just prefer McCoy/Spock?”

Opening his mouth to respond, Clint thought about what he was going to say and promptly closed his mouth once more.

“That means ‘yes’ in Clint,” explained Natasha, reaching over to hand Bucky another green jelly drop in return for his keen observations. “Entertaining enough for you?”

“Very,” he confirmed, plopping the candy into his mouth with a happy smile while Clint proceeded to finish decorating the saucer. With the final touches in Clint’s somewhat capable hands, Natasha made her way over to Bucky’s side and sat down on his lap, content to wait for Clint to finish with the decorating and Phil to take his pictures before she finally got to indulge herself in some of the gingerbread goodness.

Making his way around the table, Phil situated himself directly behind Clint and leaned forward to press his nose into the back of the archers neck as the other man finished up with the decorations. “I love you,” he whispered against Clint’s skin, chuckling when the younger man shivered in response.

“I love you too.” He could hear the cheerfulness in Clint’s voice, followed by a slight nudge of his elbow against Phil’s side so that he would look up to admire his work. “What do you think?”

“I think Nick is going to be Jealous that he didn’t get a chance to help us eat it,” chuckled Phil, pressing a tender kiss to the back of Clint’s neck. “I also think I need to go get the camera.”

“You can get it in a bit.” He raised an eyebrow at the comment. Clint wasn’t usually one to wait for the opportunity to eat as much gingerbread as possible. “We still have some hot chocolate, and Nat just got comfortable. We wouldn’t want to force her to get off of Bucky’s lap too soon. Besides… the longer we make him wait the funnier it is.”

Phil could see what Clint meant. From the corner of his eyes he watched as Bucky tapped his foot against the floor impatiently, waiting for the moment that Natasha would get up and he would be able to eat as much of the gingerbread house as he could. He was glad that she had only brought the one supersoldier with her. He couldn’t imagine what a mess the place would be if both Bucky and Steve were here to destroy all of their hard work together. Not to mention no one else would get any of the gingerbread ship. The two ate almost as much as Thor, and that was saying a lot.

“Whatever you say, Doctor McCoy,” hummed Phil happily, hiding his face in the back of Clint’s neck and holding him close while the archer laughed at Phil’s new nickname for him.

* * *

 

With a blanket in one hand and a brand new cup of hot chocolate in the other, Clint made his way from the bedroom back towards the living room where Natasha and Bucky had made their home for the night on the couch. The two of them looked awkward, tangled in each other's arms and just barely fitting on the furniture, but it was also adorable in a way.  Natasha had tucked her head under Bucky’s chin and buried her face into his chest, and Bucky had his arms around her waist so that he could hold her close and prevent her from taking a tumble onto the floor.

“Cute,” he chuckled, throwing the blanket over them and watching as Natasha responded by pulling it over her shoulders and cuddling in closer to Bucky, all without waking up for a moment. He was certain that Bucky was going to wake up any second, ready to vomit all of the gingerbread ship that he had eaten. Unfortunately for Clint, he was probably the only one who was going to get sick. Bucky had his super soldier metabolism, Natasha had exercised caution and restraint in her enjoyment of the monstrosity that they had built (typical of her, the buzzkill), and Phil...well…

“Clint!” A giggle rang out from the bedroom, signalling that Phil had woken up from the slumber that Clint thought he had finally managed to coax him into. “Clint come back to bed!”

“Remind me again why I’m the child?” he asked absolutely no one, rolling his eyes with a fond smile and making his way back towards the bedroom. “Should have listened to Nick when he warned me, but no, I couldn’t believe it. Phil Coulson, a hyper mess on sugar? Nah, that can’t possibly be my boyfriend. That has to be Nick’s boyfriend. Jasper seems more the type. Boy, was I wrong. He’s never going to let me live this down.” Rambling to himself, Clint made his way back towards the bedroom and tried to ignore the sound of what was likely a 46 year old man bouncing up and down on his bed as if the holidays had come early. For him, it probably had. “No more huge gingerbread creations. Too much damn sugar in them.”

“Clint!” He had just stepped into the bedroom, ready to start the routine of getting Phil back into bed, when he found himself with an arm full of Agent knocking him onto his ass. “Where did you go?” The agent beamed down at him, evidently proud that he had managed to knock Clint off of his feet. He didn’t even bother to notice the discarded coffee mug on the floor, or all of the hot chocolate that had spilled onto Clint’s shirt and sweatpants when he jumped him.

“To get our guests a blanket.” He smiled, foregoing any attempts to clean his shirt in favour of wrapping his arms around Phil’s waist and pulling him close. Phil, in return, decided to make the best use of his position and start peppering Clint with kisses. Some made their way onto his mouth, but the majority landed on his cheek, chin and neck. Phil was too busy giggling to attempt anything that even remotely resembled aim.

For a while, Clint just sat there and let Phil do as he pleased. His stomach didn’t hurt as much as it did last year, thanks to Bucky and his ridiculous appetite, and it wasn’t often that Phil was the one showering him with affection. At least, not in this way. Phil was more of a wine and dine kind of guy and he usually left the ‘assault by kisses’ part of their relationship to Clint.

“You know, we still have to work in the morning,” reminded Clint. His words apparently had no effect on Phil, who was now busy attempting to separate him from his shirt in any way that he possibly could. He only managed to succeeded when Clint pulled away far enough to prevent him from kissing his neck anymore, giving him access to shove the shirt over his head and discard it on the floor beside the forgotten coffee mug before returning to his previous duties. “We should really get to bed Phil.”

“I’m not ready to sleep,” protested Phil, his hands working their way into the short blond strands of Clint’s hair and pulling him close for a kiss.

“It’s official,” Clint laughed. “You’re ridiculous when you’re on a sugar high.” Wrapping one arm firmly around Phil’s waist, he used the other one to push the both off them off of the floor carefully and did his best not to collapse with laughter when Phil responded by wrapping his legs around his waist to help hold himself up. “Do you really want to have to tell Nick tomorrow that you were late to work because you just had to get me naked at one in the morning?”

“Like he can judge.” Phil chuckled, leaning his head down to prepper Clint’s shoulder with tender kisses while the archer made his way towards the bed. “He has been late on more than one occasion because of a pretty person. Besides, we have a cookie for him, so he’ll forgive us.”

“True, though...” Clint grunted when his calves hit the edge of the bed and send both of them spiraling down onto the mattress in a fit of laughter. He really needed to watch where he was going. “I don’t think he’ll accept ‘sugar high’ and ‘food comma’ as a proper excuse for being late to work from us though. He expects the best from his favorite agents.”

“It’s us that will be late, not Natasha and Melinda.” Rolling his eyes, Clint sat himself down on top of Phil’s waist and fought to drag his hands away from his sweat pants so that he could pin them together above his head. “You’re no fun.”

“I’m lots of fun,” corrected Clint, leaning down to brush his lips against Phil’s in a playful gesture. “We’re not going to be late tomorrow?”

“I’ll drive you directly to the range 5 minutes before your scheduled time,” promised Phil, ignoring the fact that the range was inside of SHIELD headquarters and Nick probably wouldn’t appreciate having a car drive through the place just so he could drop Clint off on time. “Does that work?”

  
“I’ll take it,” he chuckled, letting go of Phil’s hands and grunting when the older agent promptly used the new freedom to shove Clint onto his back and sprawl across his chest while he assaulted his neck with kisses. Tomorrow was going to be a long day, and Clint was probably going to be sick as a dog by the middle of the night because of all the gingerbread he had eaten, but it was going to be worth it for all the memories they had made tonight. Not to mention the memories that Phil still planned on making as long as the two of them could stay awake.


End file.
